Alex Krawarik leads the first pitches of Chapel Pond Slab
The fall of 1989 found me in Plattsburgh, New York, starting my freshman year in college at SUNY Plattsburgh. That fall I met a good friend named Dave, and together we climbed throughout the Adirondacks and eventually Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine over the next several years. But that fall was special because I was leading my first trad climbs, I learned how to ice climb, and learned that I loved the mountains. I had never really been camping before that year, or hiking anything significant, and my first magical hikes in the High Peaks stand out in my memory as one of the most formative experiences in my life.
So it was with great excitement that I planned a sort of homecoming and coordinated with both Dave and my friend Craig for a long weekend in the High Peaks. I had not been back to New York in near 10 years now, ever since I moved West in 1993, and had not visited Plattsburgh since the Summer of 1990, when I did a climbing road trip with Dave and we climbed such classics as Catharsis on Pok-O slab, the Regular Route on Whitehorse, and other climbs.
I wanted to go in the second or third week in October, hoping that the weather would be OK and the leaves at their peak. There really is nothing to compare to upstate New York and New England in the fall. Nothing.
Summer and I arrived at Chapel Pond at about 1 in the morning, after flying into Albany and driving North. It was very windy, but the rain had stopped around Lake George and so we braved the evening and set out our sleeping bags to catch some sleep. Craig, who was supposed to be coming up from the city, was late and would only arrive in the morning with the ropes.
During the night it sprinkled a little and we used that as an excuse to bail back into the car. Sleeping in the car the rest of the night wasnt too uncomfortable, and in the morning we got up and went to the Cliffhanger Cafe in Keene Valley for breakfast. Ah Keene Valley! The epitome of a sleepy New York climbing town. It hadnt changed much at all.
Alex Krawarik leads the first pitches of Chapel Pond Slab
After breakfast we headed back up to Chapel Pond, where while we waited only 15 minutes for Craig, we scoped out the base of Chapel Pond Slab to make sure it wasnt too wet. Craig was very surprisingly on time and in short order we were roping up for a climb of the slab! This was a dream come true! Not that Chapel Pond slab is all that difficult, its just a moderate slab route, but its been so long since I had climbed up here, I was really relishing it. While I had wanted to climb Thanksgiving, we opted for a drier route to the right, the Regular Route. Instead of traversing right at the top, though, we went straight up with a nice airy 5.6-ish finish.
Craig Meisner high on Chapel Pond slab's Regular Route
We missed the decent gully on the way down, and instead traversed the top of the Emperor slab and wound up coming down on the fringes between the Emperor slab and the Beer walls. We decided since it was still threatening to rain, that we wouldnt climb another slab route and instead try something harder on the Beer Walls or Spiders Web. But we ended up heading over to the Creature Wall. Here we scoped out some nice looking lines, and I ended up leading a steep, run-out 5.8. I needed about 4 number 1 Camalots to lead this route, but I had only taken one so the crux ended up being quite a run-out serious affair with me clawing my way up the last few moves.
After Craig and Summer top-roped the fine climb, we headed out back to the car and into Keene Valley for some browsing at the Mountaineer, perhaps one of the finest gear shops in the US. While Graig got an education on crampons and ice gear from the helpful sales guy, I tried on ice climbing gloves and wandered around.
We soon headed out, back to Brankt Lake where Craig had arranged we could stay the night at a friends cabin. Cabin indeed, the place was enormous, a true Adirondack Camp! We built a fire, cooked a huge spaghetti dinner, and vegged out.
Alex Krawarik leads the classic 5.8 handcrack on the Creature Wall, Chapel Pond
